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Building near White House evacuated

Some Monday morning excitement for workers in the New Executive Office Building, across the street from the White House: An evacuation. The Secret Service evacuated the building, and cordoned off part of

Building near White House evacuated

Some Monday morning excitement for workers in the New Executive Office Building, across the street from the White House: an evacuation.

Law enforcement officials evacuated the building — and cordoned off parts of Pennsylvania Avenue, 17th Street, and H Street — near the White House, when a bomb-sniffing dog picked up something in a car parked in the area.

The alert lasted less than an hour when officials determined that the car was not a danger. Employees in the New Executive Office Building who had decamped to adjacent Lafayette Park in front of the White House went back to work.

Officers had also evacuated construction workers at Blair House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

As Mark Knoller of CBS News pointed out in his Twitter feed, "sometimes radiator coolant or refrigerant will trigger an alert by bomb-sniffing dogs."